When a Spanish student of English hears the word
phonetics, s/he usually panics, mainly because of the English system of twelve vowels
(nearly unbelievable for someone with a basic system of five), but also because of the
scarcity of pronunciation rules (cf. French or German). In Spain phonetics is taught at
the university level, and as part of the curriculum of the Official Schools of Language.
In the latter, students over 14 can enroll in a five-year course to learn the language
they choose. Their reasons for joining us are varied, but their motivation is usually
high. As a teacher in one of those schools, I will try to make a brief summary of the
basic problems students of phonetics face, and I will also propose possible solutions.

From beginner to
intermediate: Shocked but motivated

Once students have come to accept that there are
other systems in languages and have overcome their fear of making fools of
themselves, the learning process goes smoothly. At this basic level, they are encouraged
to pronounce each phoneme with the help of imitation, technical explanations, or
repetitive drills (useful books are Tree or Three [1990], Sheep or Ship [1992] or Sounds
English [1993]). Though still at a loss with the completely new phonemes, students soon
appreciate that they sound more English when pronouncing the diphthong /ow/ in
dont, go, home or /@/ in the. for
instance (the list is endless). More important, they feel that their ability to
communicate is greatly improved since they can understand that give me a pan,
give me a pun, give me a pen, give me a pin have
different meanings according to the vowel they pronounce. Or why excuse
me-squeeze me; vowel-bowel;
kindness-kidneys are mistakes that make people laugh.

Intermediateupper
intermediate: From disillusionment to frustration

At this stage (from third year on) students are
taught to transcribe connected speech. They still have great problems in understanding a
non-graded conversation, and they insist that it is mainly because English speakers do not
pronounce many of the sounds that they expect to hear. This is due, among
other reasons, to weak forms and schwas, which are not used in the same way in Spanish.
Although they are encouraged to learn and imitate the production of weak
forms, students do not hear them when they listen to English and do not seem to give
them great importance.

From my personal experience in teaching phonetics, this lack of interest is
due to the fact that applied phonetics is a neglected aspect in ELT. The only practice
students get comes from the transcription of written text. Phonetics is soon regarded as
something unreal, something that does not go beyond the printed page.

Most books give weak forms short shrift particularly in recorded materials: Gimson 1980
and Parkinson de Saz 1988; OConnor (1989); Arnold and Gimson 1973; Gimson (1987);
Hewings (1993). Although these books contain excellent material for transcriptions, the
material is out of context, and therefore difficult to insert effectively in any part of
the course.

Unfortunately, students are not the only ones who lack appropriate material. Teachers can
scarcely find any reference to the topic of applied phonetics, even in specialized books
(Haycraft 1992). Teachers are then left with the frustrating task of watching or listening
to non-specialized videos or tapes in search of the lost weak sound and a motivating
context. 

Since they can mispronounce words and still be understood (even though with difficulty),
they see no point in making any effort to improve their pronunciation. What they do not
seem to realise is that their odd pronunciation, without the help of context, can hinder
comprehension. More important,without an understanding of weak forms, they are not
going to recognise the words they hear in conversation.

Summing up

There are two important problems when teaching
phonetics in an (upper) intermediate level. First, the lack of motivating recorded
authentic material, and as a consequence of that, the attitude of students, makes students
feel ridiculous repeating and pronouncing weak forms after a tape. The effect in the chain
of speech of our own language (Spanish, in this case) is totally different. This
combination produces students who can write exceptionally accurate phonetic
transcriptions, but who, in a practical situation, are unable to pronounce or identify
what they have learnt.

Now it is our turn to ask ourselves whether or not this is the result we are expecting
and, if not, why. Teachers are then left with the task of producing and asking for
material more adequate to our own and our students real needs. Do we want students
to apply their theoretical knowledge to their use of English? If so, we will have to start
using our resources in a different way. No one is going to liberate students
from the burden of having to study weak forms or their exceptions. It is
exactly here, however, that written texts are basic. However, this task should be carried
out only as a follow-up of a more communicative and motivating approach. We need
activities that begin with the ears, then with the mouth and only later on use pen and
paper.

The addressing of phonetics

No doubt there are many possible ways of
introducing motivating activities dealing with phonetics. However, I have chosen some bits
and pieces of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webbers widely known musical Cats,
because it is music, and because most of the students are sure to have heard (of) it. They
will probably know that the play is still being staged in London, New York, and in other
cities. In addition because students may not know that most of the lyrics of the musical
are part of a book that T. S. Eliot (1939) wrote as letters for his godchildren, they will
engage the attention of the learners.

First you have to choose a particular song from the musical and select the lines that you
find interesting. Then make a copy of the song with gaps but without any of the selected
lines.

Once in class, tell your bewildered students that they are going to learn phonetics
through Cats. Open with some warm up activities (10 min.), such as giving them
photocopies with drawings of cats and asking them to give a (physical) description. At
this point, students will not see the connection between cats and phonetics, so tell them
that from then on, you are going to work with other cats who have very rich personalities
and are very close to the musical comedy. If you are lucky, most of your students will now
catch on and will still be interested to see what happens next. Pool their information
about the musical Cats.

Give them the copy of the song, and let them listen to it at least twice to fill in the
gaps. After correcting the exercise, ask them for a brief description of the cats
personality (10 min).

Then tell them to concentrate on the missing lines. Play only that part, and ask your
students to write down any word they hear. These words will probably be nouns, adjectives,
verbs, or adverbs. Ask why they selected these parts of speech and help them reach the
conclusion that it is because those words are content words which are always accented.
Suggest making a list with the transcription of those words, paying special attention to
unaccented syllables (schwas, U, I) and to the pronunciation of past, plural, and genitive
suffixes (15 min).

Play the tape again, and list the transcribed weak forms using the same reasoning: They
are more difficult to hear because they are usually unaccented, which affects their
pronunciation. Explain the behaviour and exceptions of the forms you have come across in
the fragment of the song you have chosen. Whenever necessary, reinforce the practise by
using any of the available recorded material. This activity may take 15 minutes or more,
depending on the complexity of the point you are putting across and on the amount of
recorded material you need.

I have written in bold the words that may have
an interesting weak form (normal or exceptional). On top of that, all past plural and
genitive suffixes should also be considered:

1. Prologue: Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats.Theres a man over there, witha look of surprise as much as to say,
well how about that?
Do I actually see with my own very eyes a man whos not heard of a Jellicle cat?
2. The naming of Cats:
through a silence you feel you can cut with a knife, announced the
cat who can now be reborn and come back to a different Jellicle life.
Because waiting up there is the heavy side layer full of wonders a
Jellicle only will see.

One could continue in the same way with other selections from the musical:The Old
Gumkie Cat; Gus, the Theatre Cat, etc.

As a follow-up activity, suggest working in pairs, i.e., teams A and B. Each should write
a short description (5 lines) of the cat, using the new words. Each team should then read
its description to the other group, but pronouncing only content words. They both should
realise that the meaning is passed on simply that way. Later on, they could swap and
transcribe each others texts.

Because the material you are working with is authentic, you will not find a paragraph
prepared to cover all your expectations. Thus, you may need many songs to complete a
single theoretical point. From my point of view, this is not necessary and, can be very
boring for your students. The idea is to use the songs to motivate people when introducing
an explanation. After making your students understand and practise what you find in the
song, however short it is, you can use books (see bibliography) to complete the
explanation. This will also open the door to possible problems of transcription students
will find in other songs or texts later on.

Working in this way, you can whet your students appetites by providing them with
up-to-date material that, apart from helping them to transcribe, might encourage them to
hear other musical comedies or to read some of Eliots superb poetry. Besides, they
will feel that the texts have a life of their own instead of being created exclusively for
the sake of transcription. No doubt, they will feel motivated by understanding new
expressions and learning how pronunciation, which highlights certain parts and shadows
others, also affects the content of a text.

ANABEL
ALVAREZ CUÑADO is currently an English teacher at the Official School of Language in Le
Viga (Galicia), Spain.